There have been live reports throughout the day of this event, care of Neil Taylor furiously texting. The regulars all improved on their 2006 positions, but none more so than Sam Watson who moved up from 98th to 43rd place.

Full Ben Nevis Results

Ben Nevis Sweepstake Results

Here are his reports in time order.

9.00 am Fort William. The team is all set for the Ben, 2.00pm start. The gang is Kevin Rogan, Sam Watson, Kate Rogan, Chris Newman, Goldie, Mark Bennett and Neil Taylor. Having had a full english breakfast, they are off for the traditional walk round Fort William.

11:00. Cool light drizzle, moderate breeze and that's at the start at sea level! Kev and Chris had a walk up the lower slope. It will be a challenging day. The boulder field and grassy bank will be very greasy. It is going to be great fun.

11:45. Low cloud cover to about 500 ft, in addition to the conditions above.

12:40. One can only describe the current meteorological conditions using the colloquialism ... it's chucking it down.

1:33 pm. Last pre-race post. All changed and set for the off. Even Mark's woken up! The weather is looking a bit better - no rain, for now..

5:00 pm The results will be published later, but the winner was Ian Holmes with a time of 1:32:57. The first lady was Angela Mudge with a time of 1:48:28.

The times of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Prediction
43	Sam Watson	1:52:25	1:59:30
54	Mark McGoldrick	1:52:47	1:58:59
59	Chris Newman	1:53:24	1:59:59
198	Kevin Rogan	2:17:52	2:14:20
242	Neil Taylor	2:24:23	2:19:47
257	Kate Rogan	2:27:04	2:15:10
338	Mark Bennett	2:42:27	2:35:00

Sam Watson has been quietly improving all season and he has recently produced some good results. It therefore seems appropriate that he has taken the lead in the club championship. However, there is a long way to go yet, but he has the points in the bag and it is up to the others to catch him.

Angela Gray
Not all Wharfedalers went North over the border this weekend and amongst those who stayed behind was Paul Harlowe, who has sent the following report of his first run out for a few weeks

Whilst many went to the mega Ben and Braemar, three discerning Wharfedalers chose to go to this fast 5.5 miler near Hebden Bridge. Having had a quiet time of it for 5 weeks due to injury, this race over the Calderdale Way and Pennine Way footpaths certainly blew the cobwebs away. Adam and Angela joined me at the start line for what turned out to be a record breaking run for Jonathon Hare in 36.44. Chris Smales came next in 37.25 and then Steve Oldfield in 38.04.

Our results were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
8	Paul Harlowe	40:40	MV50
59	Angela Gray	53:20	F
63	Adam Baker	54:30

Three youngsters and eight seniors turned out in the rain for this event. For the youngsters, they all ran well, but first place eluded them this week, and only the narrowest of margins. In the U17s, Jonathan Bradhaw finished 2nd, in the U12s, Ben Johnstone also finished 2nd and in the U9s, Robbie Johnstone finished 4th.
In the seniors, Jason Helmsley had another good run for his new club and was 3rd male. Carl Bradshaw also managed a top ten finish whilst John Wooton in his first turn out for Wharfedale for some time finished 12th. Tamara Hird was third lady.

The finishing positions of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
3	Jason Helmley	27:54
10	Carl Bradshaw	31:52	V40
12	John Wooton	32:06	V40
20	Tamara Hird	33:23	3rd Lady
22	Peter Metcalfe	33:53	V50
29	John Thompson	36:18	V45
32	Lynn Whittaker	37:25	LV
34	David Hird	37:48	V50

Own Beilby loves these trail races in the Lakes. This weekend, he had a go at this one and sent the following report

I ventured up to the North Lakes for the next in the Lakeland Trails series, which started in Fitz Park, Keswick. At 14km, with just over 1000 ft of climbing, it wasn't the toughest race in the world, but after 4 pints of Guinness on Friday night, it was never going to be pretty! The race starts with a fast 3 and a bit km blast along the old railway line before beginning a steady climb through to about 9km - this was generally on good paths with a brief wade through some bogs and a quick stumble across some craggy bits. I had a worse than usual ascent followed by a good descent, where I made up at least some of the damage. The race was won by Leeds City's James Walsh followed by Rob Hope and Simon Deakin (also Leeds City). Bingley's Victoria Wilkinson took the honours from Sarah Tunstall in the Ladies race. I was 15th, finishing just under the hour (58:11). Special mention must be made of my mate from Uni - Matt Clarke and his dad Dave, who previously had only run around the GNR a couple of times. They both loved the bogs and the (down) hills and finished in a fantastic 400th and 443rd respectively on their first jaunt into the hills! They admitted to cursing me on the long drag up, but by the time they'd finished were gagging for more. Another well organised and entertaining day- I'll be back for more next year.

This is not called the Ironman for nothing, but is one that Lucas Payne has fancied doing and this year, he did it, at last. Here is his report:

Finally done the Dorset Ironman UK !
This was held on the 19th of August this year. We started at 6 am with a 2.4 mile swim. It was not too cold, although some southern softies moaned a bit. Next up was a 112 mile cycle. This I have to say was very difficult as we had the wind in our faces for half of each of the three circuits! Finally a full marathon partly off-road with the last two thirds basically on a hilly dual carriageway. Talk about a test of character - the willpower not to stop was relentless. People were walking ,throwing up and looking grey.
Got over the finish line and jumped in a Jacuzzi. It was freezing. What a disappointment!

The time splits were 1:19 for the swim, 7:01 for the bike and 3:42 for the run. In addition Lucas has injured his leg. He says that he will be training again with everyone in three to four weeks.

The full results are in the results section.

This Wednesday is the Ilkley Incline Race which starts from Wells Road. There will also be a pub run from the Cow & Calf and several members have expressed a preference for this rather than a mid week race. So, if you do not fancy a race this Wednesday, if you turn up to the Cow & Calf at 6:45 for a 7:00 pm start, you can go on a mid week pub run as normal. As usual, non members and members of other clubs are also welcome.

Four Wharfedalers went up for this event, but only three finished. For some reason Ted Mason pulled out. We do not know if it was a recurrence of his recent injury or whether he was just being cautious. Let us hope that it is the latter.

The finishing times and places of the Wharfedalers were as follows;

Pos	Name	Time	Other
17	Marcus Rae	2:10:05
39	John Perry	2:23:52
88	Judy Howells	2:42:15	L

This was called a fell race, but it quite unlike any other fell race. For a start, most of it is on the road and secondly, there is no descent. It is really a short uphill race.
Only three Wharfedalers took part in the race. It would have been six, but Marcus Rae, Vicky and Angela Gray turned up too late for the start. So they went up to the Cow & Calf for the social run and found that by the time they arrived there, they had also set off. So they returned and did Ilkley Incline on their own.
There was a problem recording the times and so we only have positions. The race was won by Chris Needham of Leeds City followed by Graham Pearce of Ilkley. James Mountain, the under 18 from Skipton had a good run, finishing fourth overal, just ahead of Andrew Robertshaw of Otley.

The finishing places of the Wharfedalers were as follows;

Pos	Name	Time	Other
14	Jason Helmsley
17	Matthew Hird
45	Louisa Pickles	11:29	L

Ted Mason
The good news from this event is that Ted Mason is still fit and well, as he proved by coming first. Andy Holden also went to the event, but not intending to run and as a consequence took no kit. However, when he got there, he fancied having a go and he borrowed a pair of Ted's shoes and Lynn's spare ladies shorts. The net result was he came third! Whether it was the "magic" in Ted's shoes or comments from fellow runners about the pansy in those girlie shorts that did it, but Andy has no complaints and is just happy with the result.
To round off a good day for Wharfedale, Lynn Whittaker was 2nd lady.

This report is a little late, but when the organisers keep the results a secret, it is a little difficult to give an objective report of what went on. Tamara Hird kindly sent in this account of the day and the positions and results are all from memory.

In the U12's, Ben Johnstone narrowly lost out in a sprint finish with James Hall to finish second by 4 seconds behind James in 6.38. Ben's brother, Robbie Johnstone also ran the same course as the U12's.
Johnny Bradshaw was just out of the top 3 in the U17's - behind James Mountain 8.48, Luke Maude 8.57 and Thomas Sessford 8.59.

In the Senior race, Rob Hope won in a fast time of 7.59, Ted Mason had a brilliant race to finish 2nd in 8.11 - which is a PB by 10 seconds and Tom Anderton was third in 8.51.
Wharfedale senior results (out of 68 runners):-
Ted Mason 2nd
Marcus Rae 6th
Bruce Elsworth 7th
Mark McGoldrick 8th
Sam Watson 11th
Gareth Hird approx 14th
Carl Bradshaw ?
Tamara Hird 3rd lady in 12.28 behind Lisa Lacon who 1st lady in a new record of 10.36 and Helen Isley 2nd lady in 11.02.

Check out the BOFRA website for all of the photo's (there's loads!)

Category Winners
It was a good day for Wharfedale at Lothersdale Show. Sam Watson won the seniors race, although he finished behind Luke Maude who was first U17. Ben Johnstone had a cracking run, finishing 3rd overall and was first U12. Robbie Johnstone was first U9 and finished 12th overall. Nick Cunningham was first vet.

Full Results

Ben Johnstone (left)	Mark Horrocks

It was ideal conditions for running this race, although it was a little chilly for the spectators. In the seniors, Mark Horrocks lead from the start and was closely followed to the top of the fell by Chris Smale. As they approached the top, Chris tried to pass Mark, but he found that something extra to maintain his lead as they reached the summit. On the descent, Mark opened up a good lead to run out comfortable winner. It was certainly a good performance by Mark, both physically and tactically.
Further down the field, Andy Black was third as they crossed the lane with Sam Watson in fourth place, but as they reached the fell itself, Sam moved ahead in to third place, and as he opened up the gap on the chasers, he found himself in no man's land as he struggled to keep in touch with the two leaders. However, he managed to hold on to third place, despite being chased to the line by Martin Speight. This was another good run by Sam this weekend, following his good performance yesterday at Lothersdale.
Further down the field, Andy Black came home in tenth place and Lynn Whittaker was second lady.
In the juniors, Jonathan Bradshaw was up there with the leaders all the way to the top and he ran out in fourth place after another good race. In the under 12s, Ben Johnstone followed up his excellent run yesterday at Lothersdale with another good performance and he finished in second place.
His brother Robbie also had a good run finishing in sixth place in the under 9s. He will still be an under 9 next year and given another year's development, he will certainly leave his mark on this group, if this year's performance is anything to go by.

The finishing positions of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
1	Mark Horrocks	14:31	V40
3	Sam Watson	15:34	U23
10	Andy Black	16:57	V40
14	Paul Harlowe	17:40	V50
16	Carl Bradshaw	17:46	V40
20	Matthew Hird	18:05
28	Kevin Rogan	20:04	V45
30	John Thompson	20:47	V45
36	David Hird	23:02	V50
37	Lynn Whittakaer	23:15	2nd Lady
41	Angela Grey	24:11

Full results are in the results section and thanks must go to Tim Done of Bofra for getting the results to us so quickly after the event.

Already, the entry list for next year's race has opened and it would appear the maximum numbers of entrants of 500 will soon be reached. If anyone fancies going up to Ben Nevis next year, we would suggest that they get their entry form off now before it is too late! An entry form can be down loaded from the link below.

Ben Nevis Entry Form

The course is 15 miles with 10,500 ft of climbing. Of course Andy Hirst went to do it, but surprisingly did not finish it. However, he has sent in a report of the day (and his excuses). It is available from the link below.

Andy's Report

Robbie Johnstone
Including our juniors a total of nineteen Wharfedale runners turned out for this event. In the under 9s, Robbie Johnstone had his usual determined run and finished in 6th place. His brother also had a fine run to finish 2nd, whilst Jonathan Bradshaw had another good run in the U17s to finish 5th.

In the seniors, we had four runners in the top ten, with Lucas Payne, fresh from his stirling Ironman performance, finishing in 11th place. A bit like last week, Mark Horrocks was battling for first place, but unlike last week, he had youth to contend with and Tom Anderson opened up a gap on the ascent. As they approached the summit, Mark made a determined effort to catch him and probably reduced the gap, but youth had its day and Tom ran out an easy winner. Mark came home 2nd and was first Vet 40. There were also good performances from Mark McGoldrick, Jason Helmsley, Sam Watson and Lucas Payne.
Paul Harlowe was nearly first Vet 50 and on the run in was neck and neck with Jack Holt, but Jack seemed to find that something extra to just pip Paul to the post.
In the ladies section, Tamara Hird finished first lady, with Kate Rogan finishing third.

A few pictures are in the gallery.

The finishing positions of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
2	Mark Horrocks	20:35	1st V40
4	Mark McGoldrick	21:32
8	Jason Helmsley	21;58
10	Sam Watson	22:22	U23
11	Lucas Payne	22:26
13	Paul Harlowe	22:30	V50
15	Andy Black	22:45	V40
17	Chris Newman	22:56
32	Matthew Hird	24:35
35	Carl Bradshaw	25:13	V40
41	Kevin Rogan	26:09	V45
45	Tamara Hird	26;41	1st Lady
46	John Thompson	26:56	V45
50	Kate Rogan	27:40	3rd Lady
55	David Hird	28;59	V50
56	Lynn Whittakaer	29:11	LV

This is the shortest of the six Lakeland Classics at 12 miles! Andy Hirst was there, as you might expect, together with Pete Jackson and, we think, Adam Baker. The race takes its name from the the Three Shires Stone which marks the point where the old counties of Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland met up. Andy's finished 131st in a time of about 2 hours, 40 minutes with Pete a few minutes later in 136th place, much to the relief of Andy. Not bad for Pete's first race of this type. We are not sure of Adam's position and think that he was timed out, but the full results will be posted as soon as possible. Let Andy describe the race in his own unique style.

The start of this race is in the picturesque setting of Little Langdale, on the road outside the Three Shires Pub. You quickly turn left down a track to a narrow footbridge across the river, which, with around 300 runners, is a bit of a bottleneck, unless you use the ford. It's then right along a track past Low Hall Garth and head up the Greenburn Valley below the Tilberthwaite Fells. As you pass through a gate, the field tends to split into varies groups, with runners taking there own lines as they tackle the long steep accent onto the summit of Wetherlam C.P. 1. From there, you drop down to the col at Swirl Hause and ascend the Prison Band onto Swirl How C.P. 2. It's then a quick decent, where you can make up quite a bit of time, if you know the best lines, contouring round Great Carr and picking up grassy trods made by previous runners, which bypass the main rough and stony track down to the Three Shires stone at the summit of Wrynose Pass and C.P. 3. The section over Wetherlam and Swirl How was in mist and can be quite tricky navigational wise in these conditions, which one Wharfedale runner found to his cost, dropping down to, I believe, Cockley Beck between Hardknott and Wrynose pass and having to come all the way back up the road to the C.P.at the Three Shire Stones where he was timed out. From the Three Shire Stones, the route heads up to the summit of Pike O' Blisco C.P. 4 via Black Crags, then across rough and boggy ground to Blake Rigg, where you head for a clump of trees and a steep decent through bracken to the track past Blea Tarn and the hordes of tourists. It is then right at the road for a few yards and the final climb up on to the summit of Lingmoor Fell C.P. 5. From then on, it's a superb flagged run across Lingmoor, dropping steeply down a rough zigzag track to Dale End Farm, left along a track, then across fields to the road and the finish in the field across from the pub.

As some of you may be aware, Sam Wadsworth, together with his old school friend Ben Cocker, entered the C Class of the above event. Out of 121 teams, they were in 9th position at the close of day one, but unfortunately, due to a few navigational errors, finished day two in 13th place. However, putting the two days together, they ended up overall in 10th place, which they were quite pleased with.
It was an enjoyable weekend despite bad weather on the Sunday and they anticipate entering again next year.

The Embsay Race on Sunday was another Club Championship Race and the positions have now been updated.

Lucas Payne came 11th in the Bofra Race at Embsay on Sunday. He might have been challenging for a much higher place had he not decided to take part in this event. It was a 1 mile swim in Ullswater, a 38 mile bike ride round Matterdale and up Kirkstone Pass. Finally there was an 8 mile run up Helvellyn. The run up Helvellyn sounds hard enough without the swim and the bike ride and it is well done to Lucas for finishing in 103rd place out of 460 finishers.
The winner, setting a new record, was the amzing Alistair Brownlee, who is in the GB Junior Triathlon squad. His younger brother Jonathan was too young to enter, but was allowed to go on a training run at the same time. He finished in unofficial 6th place.

Full details are in the results section.

It is not long to this event and our team is as follows:

Leg 1 Kirt Livesey & Marcus Rae
Leg 2 Andy Black & Jason Helmsley
Leg 3 Owen Bielby & Mark McGoldrick
Leg 4 Ted Mason & Mark Horrocks

This looks a good team and with a bit of luck on the day and Andy remembering to study his map, we should do well.

Cross Country is not everyone's cup of tea, but it is good for improving your speed. In addition, for fell running enthusiasts, all the courses listed below are quite hilly, except for York. For those who have not run in this league before, it is a series of 4 races with 3 to count. Also, four ladies and six men count for teams. This year's events are:

Sunday 14 October. Nunroyd Park, Guiseley.
Saturday 27 October. Bramley Park, Leeds.
Saturday 17 November. York
Sunday 2 December. Thornes Park, Wakefield.

In every instance, the ladies race starts at 13:45 and the men's race at 14:15.

The cost is £6.00 to cover all races. The league is pre-entry only and if you are interested in entering, please contact Tamara Hird or Jason Helmsley on 01535 653509 or email Tamara on tamara.hird@environment-agency.gov.uk before Thursday 20 September.

Four Wharfedalers went up for this race. Well, only Bruce actually went up, the other three were on holiday in the Lakes and thought that they would take this one in.
The race was won by Lloyd Taggart in a new record time of 49:50. We managed two in the top twenty in this tough race.

The finishing positions and times of the Wharfedalers are shown below. The organisers are in no hurry to get the full results out and will publish them in October. Unbelievable.

Pos	Name	Time	Other
18	Bruce Elsworth	62:52
20	Marcus Rae	64:30
77	Vicky Rae	93:56
78	Angela Gray	96:32

Three Wharfedalers went up for this event and once again thanks to Neil Taylor for sending in a report of the days events so promptly.

Neil's Report

The finishing positions of the Wharfedalers was as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
10	Sam Watson	1:09:55
31	Kevin Rogan	1:25:48	V50
36	Neil Taylor	1:27:59	V45

Adam Baker went off today to do this this 6.5 miles 1500 ft race from Chop Gate car park Near Stokesley.

Here is his report of the day.

The course was more like a fast cross country. With quite a big uphill climb at the start to a trig point, I decided to go flat out as I am doing the whole N.E hill running series. I was running up the first climb as fast as I could and been overtaken left and right. Once at the top, there was a steady run for a mile or so, then a small decent, followed by a steady inclined track run for a few miles. This I managed to run at quite a fast pace all the way to the trig point, before the big decent to the finish. I think I managed about 55 miniutes, which was good for me, I think. All in all, a good race.

I was racing in sunny Mytholmroyd this weekend at the Good Shepherd fell race (15M and 2000ft - although measured on someone's Garmin at 3747ft - it certainly felt more like this!) The race starts from Cragg Vale Road, heading up to Stoodley across Erringden Moor, before dropping down to Withens Clough Res, and then skirting the drain around the edge of the moor, before striking out across the moors to the Cloven Stone. From here, the course follows the Pennine Way around to just short of Stoodley, where you drop down to London Road and then back up to Stoodley again. There the course is marked back to Mytholmroyd via Sunderland Pastures, Robin Hood rocks and Cragg Vale. The race started out at a good pace and it was immediately obvious that the top 4 places would be decided between the CVFR trio of Karl Gray, Adam Breaks, Ben Mounsey and Shaun Godsman of Tod Harriers, with me stuck in between these 4 'racing snakes' and the chasing pack!
I was pretty confident on route choice for the whole race, except between CPs 3-4 and this section did indeed provide some problems (note to self - the compass is always right). Happily everyone followed me so whilst I lost ground on the leading pack, I didn't lose any places! I also took a very poor line back up Stoodley - missing the path which slowly contours up the hill. I ended up ploughing straight up the front, again everyone followed much to my (I knew I'd got it wrong!) and the marshals amusement. From here on the course was well marked and I eventually finished in around 2.12. The race was won by Karl in fine style, knocking almost 5 mins off his old record, with Adam in 2nd, just outside the old record. 3rd was Ben and 4th Shaun - I stumbled in over 10 mins behind. The ladies race was won by Naomi Sharrat of Stainland, with Tod's Ali Richard's in 2nd. A great day out with around 125 taking part and superb organisation, marking and marshalling; the organisers even had time to arrange good weather - Happy Days!

Full results are in the results section

The dark nights are approaching and the summer pub runs are coming to an end, but it is not all gloom and doom as we can liven up those dark evenings with some more of the popular Owl events. The first of these will be on Halloween and again is a run or bike event. Full details are on the link below.

Ingleborough Owl Event

The Thiveley Pike Race has been cancelled and a few members are going out on Sunday morning to do the half tour of Pendle. If you fancy joining them, everyone is welcome. The start is 9:30 from Barley and the run will last about 2 hours. If you want any further details, please contact Kevin on 01282 812961.

It seem that a few Wharfedalers fancied a bit of road running this weekend and went up to the North East for this race. There were nearly 35,000 finishers and in a crowded field such as this, as the results below show, even the loss of a few minutes in finising pushes you way down the finishing table

The finishing positions of the Wharfedalers were as follows:

Pos	Name	Time	Other
464	Mark McGoldrick	1:27:14
1358	Tamara Hird	1:35:12
2524	Sharon Barker	1:40:38